Recently, a subcontractor asked me to comment on what they should be including in their payment claims. They had two major concerns:  

• making their payment claim template as clear as possible, to promote the likelihood of claims being assessed as fully payable and avoid payments being delayed because the head contractor wanted additional information; and 

• making sure that their payment claims comply with the security of payment legislation, so that if they need to rely on that legislation (e.g, to apply for adjudication of a payment dispute), they are not excluded because of a technicality.  

Section 24 of the Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 (WA) (BCISPA) sets out the technical requirements for payment claims on construction projects in WA. To comply, payment claims must:   

• be in writing and in the approved form, if any (note there is not currently any approved form under the BCISPA or the Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Regulations 2021 (WA) (the Regulations), but sometimes principals will provide a preferred payment claim template or set out specific requirements in the contract; 

• indicate the amount that the supplier claims as payable;  

• describe the items and quantities of construction work or related goods and services to which the payment claim relates;  

• state that the payment claim is made under the BCISPA; and 

• include any other information required by the Regulations.  

Where the contract relates to home building work for a single dwelling and the homeowner is an individual rather than a corporate entity, the payment claim must be accompanied by a “Homeowner’s Notice” in the form set out in Schedule 1 of the Regulations. You can find a copy of the Homeowner’s Notice here.  

BCISPA allows for payment claims to be made in the form of tax invoices. However, many principals on commercial projects require the payment claim to be made and assessed before a tax invoice is submitted for the amount assessed as payable, rather than the claimed amount.  

The Regulations do not currently contain any other requirements for payment claims.  

In addition to complying with statutory requirements it’s also worth considering some practical project requirements for payment claim templates. Some useful details might include: 

• Party details, including ABN, trading names and relevant contact details (e.g., accounts email address or payment claim platform URL);  

• Contract and project details;  

• the milestone and/or the period of time to which the claim relates, particularly if that period is longer than one month; 

• Whether the claim is the final claim;  

• variation claims (both approved and not approved), and their impact on the contract sum;  

• a list of previous payment claims, including any difference between the amount claimed and the amount assessed as payable;  

• status of any cash retention;  

• any exclusions from the current payment claim; 

• notes about upcoming or unusual claims; and 

• a notation of any attachments to the payment claim (e.g., where you are substantiating the claim by providing supplier invoices).  

Capturing these kinds of details can help with ongoing recordkeeping, particularly on long-term projects, or where the contractor is not using project management software.  

The WA Building Commissioner has published a sample payment claim template here. It’s in the form of an editable PDF, so may not be practical for larger contractors and subcontractors. In my experience, many businesses develop a simple excel spreadsheet with set formulae to calculate totals.  

 One thing that is often missing from the payment claims I see is the statement that they are made under the BCISPA. You can see an example of this statement at the top of the sample claim template I’ve linked above. I appreciate that this seems pedantic, but no one wants to be excluded from exercising their rights under the BCISPA because of some missing words.